Yesterday, CBS reported, “Trump says he’ll resurface the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, turning it blue.” The project, originally projected to take three years, has already started and will be done in a few weeks, well in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was originally built in the 1920’s. It stretches between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial/Washington Monument along the National Mall. Its basin totals over 300,000 square feet and is over 2,000 feet long— the length of around twelve Olympic-sized swimming pools stacked end-to-end.

The Reflecting Pool has prompted a great deal of reflection. In 2012, Obama spent $34 million to “renovate” the pool, and the before-and-after distinction was so stark it required scientific instruments to detect. Visitors often describe the water as green, sludgy, and filled with algae. One August 2024 Yelp review noted the pool had “very little water,” and what water it did have...